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Carlos was used to being on edge. He was a cop. It was his job to chase down and catch dangerous criminals and put himself in the very center of dangerous situations. It is what he is being paid to do. There was also the addition of growing up homosexual in Austin, Texas, especially as a latino. If he wasn’t being excluded for the brown of his skin, he was being bullied due to the fact he liked boys.
It wasn’t an easy way to grow up. It was painful and challenging and seemed downright impossible some days. It all had been worth it though. Following his father’s footsteps into law enforcement and meeting his soulmate one fateful night on the job. As much as some aspects of his childhood hurt like nothing else in the world, he wouldn’t change a single moment that lead him to where he was today.
TK was his light in the dark. The man was his shining star. The moment he had set eyes on him, Carlos had known he would be the one. Hot. Snarky. Kind. Every single thing that Carlos looked for in a man. If he could be at home with TK right now, wasting the night away in his lovers arms, he would be. But alas, they were both on shift and Carlos was currently following up on a noise concern from an abandoned warehouse.
Usually he wouldn’t be riding solo. Most officers had partners specifically for situations like these where there was a lot of open space to get snuck up on. Unfortunately, the person he took to patrolling with majority of the time had called in sick this morning. With the short notice, the department was unable to get a replacement, so Carlos had been riding alone all day. It had been fine in the beginning. When the sun was out, people were less likely to do dumb shit that put themselves and others in danger. Then the second that the sun started setting in the sky, people act like they do not know how to function anymore and begin acting a fool.
Being at this warehouse in the middle of the night, Carlos was almost 100% sure was the result of someone being foolish. He wouldn’t be surprised if someone had fallen through some floorboards or broken their ankle while messing around. as much as the situation would have been a pain in Carlo’s ass, he could argue that it was better than just sitting in his car and watching the minutes tick by until he was off the clock. He had done that far too much today already to handle any more of just watching the clock.
His body was on edge as he crept his way through the warehouse. Since getting there, he hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary. The worse part so far had been trying to make his way into the building to begin with. It was surrounded by large fenced walls and barbed wire. It had taken him finding a gap big enough in the chicken wire that he could slide through to even get in.
He didn’t know what kind of person found it entertaining to squeeze their way inside dangerous buildings on a Sunday night. There was nothing fun about the situation he was in right now. He kept his flashlight and gun pointing in front of him. He doubted he would have to use the weapon, but he had seen too many calls gone wrong to know to be prepared.
The warehouse was big and consisted of two floors. While the call had described the building as a warehouse, Carlos was sure this had to be some old food court or tiny mall. There was a open area in the middle that stretched all the way up to the roof of the second floor. Balcony’s and walkways lined the edge of the wall. Small blocked off rooms stuck back from most oof the walls.
It reminded him of the place his father used to take him as a kid. The mall not far from the city central. He had always had the best time following after his parents as they shopped and talked their days away. His dad would always buy him a big pretzel from one of the venders before leaving each time. Those were some of his fondest childhood memories. He could still remember the taste of the warm bread as his father gave him a piggy back ride out to the car.
Carlos smiled softly at the memory, still making sure he was being cautious of where he was stepping. Most of the room extensions were completely blocked off with crumbled concrete or sealed shut.
It didn’t take him too long to make his rounds of the bottom floor and find that nothing was there. Carlos sighed, making his way back to the center of the room. He shined his light around until he was met with the shadow of a staircase in front of him. He really had hoped whoever was here hadn’t decided going up old stairs was a great idea, but alas, here they were.
Carlos kept his footsteps light as he made his way to the cracked concrete stairs. They looked dangerous as hell. Every step he took upward, he carefully tested the weight of each on before him. The last thing the department, or himself, needed was to get a call for one of their officers breaking a leg.
When he had successfully made it to the top, Carlos dared to look over the balcony. The fall was high enough that it would certainly break a limb if not kill someone. Carlos could only hope he had gotten here quick enough that the person he was searching for hadn’t been able to do anything stupid yet.
The storefront situation on the top floor was similar to the bottom floor. Most were either completely unreachable or glued shut. He tried every door that there was. There was no trace of a person being here at all. No footprints. No sounds. Nothing. After making a round, Carlos almost decided to call it quits. There was not point staying in here much longer chasing something that did not exist.
He turned to look back at the stairs when he heard a crash from one of the rooms down the hall. Carlos sighed, redrawing his weapon as he cursed in his head. Of course. He made his way down the hall, and tried to open the door. It was still as shut tight as it was when he checked the first time. Carlos sighed and lined his body up. His shoulder took the impact as his weight slammed the door open.
“APD freeze,” He commanded, light flashing wildly across the room. He did a double take over. Nothing. There was absolutely nobody in there. Now Carlos wasn’t much of the one to believe in the paranormal, but he could admit there were something’s out there that were downright unexplainable.
Then a soft noise caught his attention. He turned his light to the very back of the room where he was met with none other than a tiny kitten. The little creature was meowing softly at him, seeming to have noticed his presences. Carlos sighed with a fond, yet exasperated smile.
The tiny thing was quite cute. Carlos put his gun down and slowed his steps as he walked towards it. “Hey, kitty,” He whispered softly, “I’m not gonna hurt you.” It crept slowly behind a box as it saw him coming, but Carlos clicked his tongue at it. “It’s okay.”
He made a step closer and without even a second for him to prepare, the floor gave away from underneath him. Carlos's yelped as his body was suddenly airless. He tried to catch himself on whatever he could get his hands on, but he only succeeded in scraping his arms raw. When he came in contact with the concrete floor, he was sure he black out for a second. His head slammed forward against the solid ground as his arm twisted awkwardly beneath him. He tried to convince himself the crunch he heard wasn’t wrong the bones in his arm.
He laid there, panting against the ground for a moment, trying to collect himself. There was another loud creaking above him and before he had the chance to react at all, more of the roof was coming down. Concrete slammed into his back. He howled in pain, trying to free himself, but he was completely pinned. More debris crashed down around him and Carlos could only pray that nothing would smash his head in and kill him.
After a long agonizing moment, everything went silent. Carlos raced for another round. He braced for more pain. There was nothing.
Only after he was sure the chaos was over did he try to access his own injuries. His arm was throbbing with dull hot pain as it law twisted beneath his chest. His head was spinning in circles, the ache centralized at his forehead where he had hit the ground. His chest was burning. It was then he realized that he was unable to get a full breath in. A hot wave of panic passed over him and Carlos began thrashing, trying to escape from the massive weight pressing him into the floor. His movements were no use.
Shit. He was stuck. He was completely stuck here, likely concussed and unable to breathe right. He tried to calm himself down a bit. He knew realistically the more he panicked, the less air he would be able to get into his lungs. He tried to reach for his walkie on the front of his vest, but he couldn’t squeeze his hand into the gap. He doubted that the thing wasn’t broken regardless.
Judging my how hard the impact had been, he would surprised if any of the equipment he wore on his front still worked.
It was then that the cold reality set in. Nobody knew he was stuck down here. Sure, the department would eventually realize he never reported back from the warehouse call, but that could take at least half an hour. Carlos didn’t know if he had that long.
The weight pressing down his spine was slowly increasing in pain as his ability to breathe clearly slowly decreased. He could only sot and hope that dispatch would send EMS before he passed out.
There was nothing else he could do besides wait.
TK wondered if anybody else got the sudden bad feeling that had washed over him halfway through the shift. He has always been prone to incidents in feeling that something was off before it actually happened. His father tended to have the same intuition as he did, but when TK had asked him if he felt like anything was up, his dad had shaken his head.
So maybe it was just a one off. Maybe he hadn’t gotten enough sleep lately or would really rather just be at home with Carlos right now.
Around 10pm tonight, his chest started to get tight and achy like he was all of the sudden in a super tense and upsetting situation. He had just been sitting around. There was nothing to be upset or worried about, but his chest had been spinning with an anxious fear that he couldn’t place.
He had checked on all of his friends, making sure nothing was out of the ordinary. He had texted Carlos a quick check up, but he was used to being left on delivered when Carlos was on shift. The man always had his notifications completely silenced in case they were in a situation where they needed to be quiet.
Ever after checking off all of his baselines, TK couldn’t identify the source of his sudden mood change. He tried to convince himself that everything was fine. That his nervous system was just acting up after a long week of stress and work.
Deep down he knew something more was up.
His suspicions were confirmed about 45 minutes later when they had gotten a call. No response from an officer who had been sent in to a scene. EMS back up requested.
The sinking pit in his chest grew. He didn’t want to think it was Carlos, but it was the only liable explanation for the dread that had overcome him.
As they packed into the ambulance, TK could tell that the team was walking on their toes around him. That sinking feeling seemed to be shared by everyone now. They were all worried about their friend, even though there was no confirmation it actually was Carlos.
Nancy had taken to driving on this one and TK was grateful for that. He didn’t know how he would be able to focus on driving when his boyfriend was potentially dying.
They had both the ambulance and the firetruck truck heading this way. They weren’t sure what they were gonna find and needed all the equipment in case things were too complex for the ambulance alone.
TK was just glad he wasn’t riding in the fire truck because he knew his dad would be stressing him out more than he already was. Also, he was sure Mateo wouldn’t be able to read the room and probably add to the growing anxiety. So he was happy to be with Tommy and Nancy and the ambulance.
The warehouse they’ve been called to was only a couple of minutes away. It didn’t take too long to drive into the parking lot and find a place to stop their vehicles. As they got out of the truck, TK’s hands were shaking as he grabbed his bag. He tried to hide the trembling, but Tommy caught on anyway.
“TK, calm down, bud,” Tommy soothed him, her voice soft and familiar, “Were gonna get him.” TK could only nod, not completely trusting himself to speak. All he could think about was the absolute worse possibilities of where Carlos could be right now.
Tommy didn’t give him much time to stay in his head through because they were quickly making their way to find and entrance. After seeing there was no gaps in the wire big enough to get any equipment in, Judd and Paul appeared behind him with wire cutters. Judd gave him a small nod of his head and Tk returned it. The two firefighters quickly cut a large enough hole in the wire for all of them to pass through.
While he waited for the section of fencing to be moved from their pathway, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He flinched at first, not expecting the sudden touch, but he quickly relaxed after realizing it was just his father.
He looked at his dad, not doing a very good job of hiding the worry laced through his face. His dad gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“We’re gonna get to him, kid,” His dad assured him. TK nodded, willing himself to believe the words. It was proving to be hard though.
Tommy and Nancy pushed a gurney through the now opened hole and TK follow quickly behind him, the firefighters hot on their tails. Dispatch had alerted him that the last pings location was near the back of the abandoned warehouse. They didn’t waste time looking in empty rooms to see if he was there. They made their way straight to the back door.
His dad took the lead and slammed the door open with his shoulder. TK’s stomach dropped a bit when they were met with rubble. There was still dust floating in the air, telling them the collapse couldn’t have been that long ago. They whipped out flashlights to begin searching when TK heard a familiar groan.
He ran towards it, ignoring both his father and Tommy’s call for him to wait until the scene was clear. He slid to his knees beside Carlos, staring at the concrete pressing into his back. TK immediately grabbed his free hand, making sure it didn’t hurt the other man.
“Carlos, baby, can you hear me?” He didn’t get a verbal answer, but Carlos did squeeze his hand. That was confirmation enough. He turned to call his team over, but they were already right behind him. His dad was calling out commands as Nancy and Tommy began taking Carlo’s vitals. TK didn’t aid in the rescue. He knew realistically it was wrong for him to considering this man was his lover. So he stayed put, gripping tight to Carlos’s hand as Paul, Mateo, and Marj lifted the slab off concrete pinning his back. Carlos groaned, the sound wet and gurgle and TK saw blood pool over his lips.
“Tommy-“ He started, fear tightening his voice. Tommy put her hand up to silence him. Her and Nancy carefully adjusted Carlos to lay on his back now that he was no longer trapped. Tommy pressed over the man’s ribs. Carlos winced at the feeling.
Tommy sighed, “a couple broken ribs, but you avoided anything worse than that.” TK breathed a sigh of relief, his nerves calming for the first time that night.
“Why is he bleeding from the mouth then,” TK asked his captain.
“Busted lip,” Tommy answered him quickly before he had another chance to spiral. “He’s okay honey.”
They got him onto a backboard and lifted up onto the gurney. Just as they began moving to get him to the hospital, Carlos shook his head.
“W-wait,” He gasped out, ribs grinding at the attempt to speak. They all froze, looking down at him.
“Don’t- don’t leave her,” Carlos stuttered. TK’s heart dropped. Had they missed another victim. Had Carlos’s partner been there all along and he had been too selfishly focused on his boyfriend and now somebody was going to die because of it.
His spiraling thoughts were stopped by a small meow. TK blinked. He looked across the room to see a small calico kitten. She was staring at the team with wide green eyes. Once she realized that she had their attention, she began coming forward, eventually stopping at TK’s legs to rub against them.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“All I am saying, babe, is I don’t know if I want the creature almost responsible for your death living in our house,” TK huffed, setting the bag of cat food that he and Carlos had picked out down on the counter. He heard the other man laugh behind him, setting the remainders of their shopping trip down as well.
“She’s too cute to be a murderer.” Carlos giggled. TK sighed. When he turned to look at his boyfriend, all attempts of a protest were squashed. The tiny kitty was curled contently in Carlos’s arms as he stared down at the little fur-ball. For two people that had been trapped in a collapsed building only a week ago, they both seemed a little too happy.
TK sighed. He walked towards his boyfriend and wrapped him and the kitten in a hug. The tiny thing meowed and purred, looking up at him with those big green eyes.
“I guess you’re right.”